Terence, the Comedies PDF
Preview Terence, the Comedies
TERENCE This page intentionally left blank Terence The Comedies TranslatedwithIntroductionandNotesby PETER BROWN 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwidein OxfordNewYork Auckland CapeTown DaresSalaam HongKong Karachi KualaLumpur Madrid Melbourne MexicoCity Nairobi NewDelhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto WithoYcesin Argentina Austria Brazil Chile CzechRepublic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan Poland Portugal Singapore SouthKorea Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam OxfordisaregisteredtrademarkofOxfordUniversityPress intheUKandincertainothercountries PublishedintheUnitedStates byOxfordUniversityPressInc.,NewYork (cid:1)PeterBrown2006 Themoralrightsoftheauthorhavebeenasserted DatabaserightOxfordUniversityPress(maker) Firstpublished2006 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced, storedinaretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans, withoutthepriorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress, orasexpresslypermittedbylaw,orundertermsagreedwiththeappropriate reprographicsrightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproduction outsidethescopeoftheaboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment, OxfordUniversityPress,attheaddressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisbookinanyotherbindingorcover andyoumustimposethesameconditiononanyacquirer BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable TypesetbySPIPublisherServices,Pondicherry,India PrintedinGreatBritain onacid-freepaperby BiddlesLtd.,King’sLynn,Norfolk ISBN0-19-814971-9 978-0-19-814971-2 1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Contents Introduction vii NoteontheTranslation xxiii SelectBibliography xxvi TheGirlfromAndros(Andria) 1 TheMother-in-Law(Hecyra) 53 TheSelf-Tormentor(HeautonTimorumenos) 95 TheEunuch(Eunuchus) 149 Phormio 203 TheBrothers(Adelphoe) 257 ExplanatoryNotes 305 This page intentionally left blank Introduction Terence (Publius Terentius Afer) was the outstanding comic play- wrightofhisgenerationatRomeandoneofthefoundingfathersof Europeancomicdrama.Atthetimeofitsfirstperformancein161bc The Eunuch was an unprecedented success, and the following year two of his plays were selected for performance at the funeral games for one of Rome’s leading statesmen, Lucius Aemilius Paullus. He achieved an elegant naturalism of style not previously heard on the Roman stage; less exuberant than his predecessor Plautus, he paid moreattentiontoconsistencyofplot-constructionandcharacteriza- tion,andhisplaysprovokethoughtaswellaslaughter.Theprevail- ing style of humour is ironic, depending on the audience’s superior knowledge of the situations the characters find themselves in. But Terence knows how to take his audience by surprise (sometimes spectacularly so), and he also entertains them with traditional comic motifs and situations, and with lively action. He has become famousforhis‘doubleplots’,sinceallhisplaysexceptTheMother-in- Lawdisplaythevariedfortunesoftwoyoungmeninlove,andmany othercontrasting pairs of characters are also to be found. However, the main focus of interest often lies elsewhere, for instance in the clashbetweenamasterandtheslavewhoisschemingtooutwithim. Terencehadwrittenonlysixplaysatthetimeofhisearlydeath,but theywerequicktobeacknowledgedasclassicsandtobeincludedin theRomanschoolsyllabus—indeed,theysubsequentlyretainedtheir placeintheLatinsyllabusthroughoutEurope,andtheywerestudied wherever Latin was studied right down to the nineteenth century. Over650medievalmanuscriptsofTerence’splayssurvive,including some with famous miniature illustrations; and nearly 450 printed editionshadbeenpublishedbeforetheyear1600. TheinfluenceofPlautusandTerenceonsubsequentliteraturehas been incalculable. In the tenth century the nun Hrothswitha of Gandersheim wrote six Christian comedies in imitation of Terence, andhewasbothimitatedandrevivedintheRenaissance,influencing such authors as Ariosto and Cecchi, who have been described viii Introduction respectivelyas‘thetruefounderofthemodernEuropeanstage’and ‘the most prolific writer of comedy in the sixteenth century’.1 The Eunuchclearly influencedUdall’sRalphRoisterDoisterandisgener- ally thought to lie behind Wycherley’s The Country Wife; Molie`re followed Phormio in Les Fourberies de Scapin, and The Brothers in L’E´cole des Maris. Schiller recommended Terence’s comedies to Goethe, who directed adaptations of four of them at Weimar at the beginning of the nineteenth century. Terence was also imitated in a number of other plays once popular but now almost totally forgot- ten, such as Shadwell’s The Squire of Alsatia (1688), based on The Brothers. But the more lasting influence has been general and indir- ect. Plots portraying love affairs, confusion of identity, and misun- derstanding were for centuries the dominant type of comic plot in the European dramatic tradition, and boastful soldiers, scheming servants, and rediscovered foundlings have long been standard in- gredientsofcomicwriting(notonlyforthestage).Theseelementsgo back to Greek New Comedy (see below), but it was Plautus and Terencewhotransmittedthemtolatergenerations. ThemoralityofTerence’splayswashotlydebated,atleastfromthe timeofStAugustine,whocriticizedhisteachersforhavingmadehim read The Eunuch at school.2 Criticism was based partly on the referencestorapeinsomeofhisplays(onwhichseebelow,‘Ancient AttitudestoRape’),butalsomoregenerallyonthefactthattheplays show boys devoting themselves to a life of love and to affairs with prostitutes. In the Renaissance the plays were defended by Erasmus and others with the rather dubious argument that they are morally improving because they show us how not to behave; on the other side,IgnatiusLoyolaatfirstthoughttheycouldberewrittentomake themsuitableforstudyinJesuitschoolsbutthencametofeelthatit would be simpler to banish them altogether. Whatever conclusion youcameto,itwasnotaquestiononwhichyoucouldavoidhavinga view.3InEnglandinthenineteenthcenturyCardinalNewmanwrote 1 SeeG.E.Duckworth,TheNatureofRomanComedy(Princeton,1952;repr.Bristol, 1994),399–400;Duckworth’sfinalchapter,‘TheInfluenceofPlautusandTerenceupon EnglishComedy’,containsawealthofmaterial,notlimitedtoEnglishComedy. 2 Confessions1.16.26. 3 See D. McPherson, ‘Roman Comedy in Renaissance Education: The Moral Question’,SixteenthCenturyJournal,12(1981),19–30. Introduction ix expurgated versions of Terence’s comedies for performance in Latin at his Oratory School at Edgbaston; he clearly found it unthinkable that the school could simply dispense with the plays. There was by then awell-established tradition of annual performances of them at WestminsterSchool,regularlyattendedby manyofthemostdistin- guishedpeopleinthecountry—politicians,clergymen,ambassadors, royalty—andreviewedinsomedetailinTheTimesandotherpapers; thereviewerssometimesdiscussedquestionsofmoralinfluence,but overwhelminglytheytookthelinetakeninTheTimeson17Decem- ber1847:‘Intheirclassicalcoursethestudentsofeveryestablishment willhavetoreadmanythingsmuchmoreindelicatethananypassage to be found in the plays acted at Westminster School...The cry of injury to morality is mere twaddle, and it would be a lamentable eventifanoldandusefulstimulanttothestudyofoneofthepurest Latinauthorsweredestroyedbysuchmaudlinnonsense.’ More recently, fashion has turned against Terence, and his plays are now rarely read at school or university. It has even become standard to claim that Terence was a failure in his lifetime—an absurd claim that treats his one known failure (The Mother-in- Law)asifitweretypicalofallhisplaysandglossesoverthecontrary evidenceofTheEunuch.4Ihopethatthetranslationsthatfollowwill helptorestorehisreputation,andaboveallthattheywillencourage actorsanddirectorstoputonperformancesofhisplays. Terence’s Life ‘Publius Terentius Afer was born at Carthage and was a slave of the senator Terentius Lucanus at Rome. Because of his intelligence and good looks, his master not only gave him a liberal education but soon granted him his freedom as well.’ So begins the Life of TerencebySuetonius,writtensome250yearsormoreafterTerence’s death in 159 bc but showing knowledge of earlier writers who had discussed the author. Suetonius records discussion by these earlier writers of the identity of Terence’s powerful backers at Rome, the nature of their relationship with him, and their treatment of him. 4 Againstthestandardview,seeH.N.Parker,‘Plautusvs.Terence:Audienceand PopularityRe-examined’,AmericanJournalofPhilology,117(1996),585–617.
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